Yeah a planet with all the quests gives 30-40 planetary commendations, and can be done in 3-4 days (relatively casually). The planets seem to alternate between offering a crapload of armor pieces and offering just a weapon, so I guess with a cap of 100 we can hold until the next planet to buy whatever we're missing.

There's also a 2 hour refund (even if bound) on NPC vendor stuff, so theoretically it IS possible to buy your orange pieces, do quite a few quests, and then sell them back and get your commendations back. Just have to divide your playtime into 2-hr intervals.

The comms-per-week cap on the leveling comms is fucking weird, especially since it's so low. Having to spend to keep under 100, that doesn't bug me at all, but capping the comm gain to 50 a week is just ... wat.

The 150/week for the grown up comms doesn't bother me as much, for whatever reason.

Yeah, the caps are way too low for how much you'll earn. But I suppose it'll get me to spend mine. I have all the crafting skills so I just pretty much make all my own stuff. So I haven't been spending comms on my last few alts, just saving them for a rainy day.

I just don't understand why there have to be caps. It's purely a npc currency with bind on pickup items.

It's all legacy wide now though? Like one of my current issues with planetary comms is I'll often be like, 1 or 2 short of an item I want to buy, but I've finished the planet and can't be assed to find a heroic to repeat or whatever.

If I have a larger pool of comms to draw from per character now, I'm going to be far more likely to spend them now.

The legacy-wide is a fine change, the 100 comms able to be held cap doesn't bother me, it's the earning cap that's way too fucking low. Unless they're going to rejigger how many comms you can earn through quests (and maybe make the non-comm rewards worth a shit to take), it is just ... way too low. A weekly cap should not be something I could earn in one planet worth of quests.

Something not mentioned here (or at least I didn't see it mentioned) were new pve achievements like killing 100+ enemies with one companion, killing bosses in a FP, completing said FP, etc.

Can someone explain to me what they are doing with pvp, specifically with expertise sub 55? I've been told that pvp will be split into 3 tiers: 1 - 29ish, 30 54, then 55. That looked like an incredibly bad idea but I was told that 30s would be able to compete with those 50+. I don't see how that could possibly be true unless they somehow nerf expertise.

If 30 54 pvp is as awful as I think it would be, I hope they split it to 30 49 and 50 54.

Something not mentioned here (or at least I didn't see it mentioned) were new pve achievements like killing 100+ enemies with one companion, killing bosses in a FP, completing said FP, etc.

Can someone explain to me what they are doing with pvp, specifically with expertise sub 55? I've been told that pvp will be split into 3 tiers: 1 - 29ish, 30 54, then 55. That looked like an incredibly bad idea but I was told that 30s would be able to compete with those 50+. I don't see how that could possibly be true unless they somehow nerf expertise.

If 30 54 pvp is as awful as I think it would be, I hope they split it to 30 49 and 50 54.

Apparently the new bolster system will automagically fix everything. Everyone will get a heap of expertise and stats to bring them up to some arbitrary level based on a 'recruit' set of gear - and by lvl 30, people should have enough abilities for at least a basic rotation.

I'm not convinced, but it's hard to tell - bolster is a buggy mess on the PTS right now, behemoths with 800k hp and 20k+ stats are running around warzones one-shotting everyone who isn't 'testing' the bug. They've said they don't want to split the tiers down further as they'd run out of people to populate them.

Edit:

Quote from: RobHinkle

Hey gang, let me see if I can bring some clarity to the situation. We do indeed have a new level of "Recruit" that we are bolstering towards, that is based on the new 55 gear. We believe that this bolster level will allow players to complete with any possible gear combination in the 30 - 54 bracket. Obviously we've had a few bumps in the road on PTS regarding current bolster, but we should be getting that fixed up soon (tm), and everyone can get back to the business of PvP.

Thanks for everyone's feedback, not just on this but on everything, it is really helping us make a better game.

Quote from: RobHinkle

Valid feedback, and something we continue to debate internally. When we talk about separating the playing population by hard lines, there are always 2 main concerns that often compete directly against each other: A)Can the players inside that bracket reasonably compete against each other, and B)Are there enough players in the bracket to keep wait times reasonably small.

We have initially chosen 30 as our new break point because that is the level in which players start having complete combat rotations (often because they've gotten a really important ability from a skill tree) and our data of who actually queues into Warzones has shown that we've got a good pool on each side of that break. We continue to analyze who is playing, however, so certainly if we ever feel like a particular PvP bracket is being starved we should make changes to it. Unfortunately, that's what we believe would happen with a 50 - 54 bracket. It might be populated initially, but would quickly become empty as players hit 55 and for everyone following the initial surge of levelers there would significantly increased wait times to get into PvP.

A number of players are concerned, reasonably I think, about the power differential between a fresh level 30 player and a current 50 player in augmented EWH gear being inside the same bracket. Our new bolster system should make those players reasonably competitive statistically, both with compensation for the lower items as well as some compensation for having fewer skill points/abilities (if you are lower level). Once we get this bolster bug fixed up, everyone should be able to see the kind of stats you are getting from the bolster and should give everyone a better basis for discussion.[/color]

Sub-55 (and at 55 without PvP-specific gear), the Bolster system is supposed to essentially convert your gear's stats to PvP gear quality, giving you a chunk of expertise and so on to match. High-end PvE gear is supposed to also convert pretty well to PvP gear with this system.

If their system works out (and so far it isn't; the new Bolster mechanics on test are a clusterfuck and nothing works right), the new system obviates the need for Recruit gear at all tiers, since it just turns your PvE gear into Recruit. High-end min/maxed PvP gear will still be better, but it's supposed to not have nearly as large a gap as before.

So now 30 54 pvp is the new 50 pvp, with the exception that new players no longer have access to WH and EWH gear? What could go wrong?

eta:

Quote

A number of players are concerned, reasonably I think, about the power differential between a fresh level 30 player and a current 50 player in augmented EWH gear being inside the same bracket. Our new bolster system should make those players reasonably competitive statistically, both with compensation for the lower items as well as some compensation for having fewer skill points/abilities (if you are lower level). Once we get this bolster bug fixed up, everyone should be able to see the kind of stats you are getting from the bolster and should give everyone a better basis for discussion.

Ok, that's better than my initial understanding (recruit vs EWH) but whatevs. I hope they get this to work properly. Of course it now means I screwed myself by buying more char slots to play sub 50 pvp but if it lets me play my old toons (I sold my recruit gear on most of them, figuring I'd hate pvp lulz) then that's better overall.

So now 30 54 pvp is the new 50 pvp, with the exception that new players no longer have access to WH and EWH gear? What could go wrong?

Not really, 55 is the new 50 PVP. 30-54 is going to just be 1-49 with the people who have full rotations split off into their own bracket. Everyone should have the exact same level of expertise in 30-54 once they get it working right.

So now 30 54 pvp is the new 50 pvp, with the exception that new players no longer have access to WH and EWH gear? What could go wrong?

Not really, 55 is the new 50 PVP. 30-54 is going to just be 1-49 with the people who have full rotations split off into their own bracket. Everyone should have the exact same level of expertise in 30-54 once they get it working right.

What I was objecting to was bolster only improving a char to recruit gear level, which would suck if you're going up against people in EWH, but BioWare claims that they have that sorted out so we'll see.

Wouldn't it be so much easier to remove any sort of expertise and give everyone 30-54 the same invisible gear mods? What I mean is, make the gear the players are weaing not matter at all. PvP naked if you want to. Your stats will be the same as the guy wearing full gear.

Maybe the fact their itemization is complete shit, but really? Why make it more complicated than it needs to be (other than lolBioware)

Wouldn't it be so much easier to remove any sort of expertise and give everyone 30-54 the same invisible gear mods? What I mean is, make the gear the players are weaing not matter at all. PvP naked if you want to. Your stats will be the same as the guy wearing full gear.

Maybe the fact their itemization is complete shit, but really? Why make it more complicated than it needs to be (other than lolBioware)

Because then that totally takes away all your choice as far as a balance between stats like alacrity, crit, etc., which matters more now that they're changing alacrity to not be terrible.

What I mean is, make the gear the players are weaing not matter at all. PvP naked if you want to. Your stats will be the same as the guy wearing full gear.

Well, they need an incentive for the PVP guy to grind PVP commendations and spend commendations and cartel coins on PVP gear.

So, if you're under-geared (or geared for PVE), they level up your gear to be equal to the entry-level PVP gear. If you grind PVP and get better gear than entry-level, you will stomp everybody else (they don't bring your gear down to be equal to everyone else). That way, a newbie will have a (theoretical) chance in a PVP fight, but the veterans who put in the time will still see gear progression.

The expertise stat is there so you can get an idea of where you are. It would probably suck if it were an invisible stat. People don't like invisible stats that affect their performance.

Well, he's talking about 30-54, though, and the only reason there will be any expertise gear there is stuff hanging around from before 2.0; I don't think you'll be able to buy any gear with expertise below cap after the patch (but maybe I'm mistaken.) So, they have to even out the expertise in that bracket just to level the playing field against people who have gear that is unobtainable.

While getting WH gear it didn't seem like my shadow was improving all that much, but it's like night and day with respect to my sentinel, who I've never pvp'd with before so only had recruit gear. I doubt I did more damage with the sent than I did with my shadow. Unless BioWare comes through with their promises I won't pvp with any of my other 50s. I had hoped to make new chars just to pvp with but if 30 54 pvp is crap then there's no point in that either.

From my understanding, those are both shots of the same level 55 Commando in a Warzone (Voidstar, it looks like).

In the first shot, he's in full optimized Elite War Hero PvP gear. In the second shot, he is essentially naked, bar his cannon and his power generator, but has better stats than with his optimized top-end level 50 PvP stuff.

Bolster is always in effect at all levels, but at 55 it serves to essentially turn everyone's equipped gear into "recruit" gear, giving the same baseline Expertise and so on, with actual level 55 PvP gear providing better stats over that baseline.

I guess the point was mostly to showcase that the base "recruit" level at 55 is equivalent to Elite War Hero at 50.

Yes, sorry for not explaining the post a little better (there screenshots are of my PTS commando) - there's a small bug with bolster at 55 in that going naked can effectively give you more stats than with pre 2.0 sets in PvP. The idea is that the *minimum* bolster should do for you is give you a level 55 'recruit' set of stats, but its not applying if you actually wear certain equipment.

Oh hey, guess which crafters are worthless again! If you answered "Artifice and Cybertech", you win the no-prize!

Quote

Hi all, just thought I would clarify some things.

At this time it is our intention that the best-in-slot PvE gear and Mods available are not reverse engineerable for schematics and not craftable at this time. Our goal is when new levels of PvE gear are introduced, the older gear and mods will then become reverse engineerable for schematics.

For the release of "Rise of the Hutt Cartel" Arkanian level gear and mods are the best craftable equipment in the game. Underworld level gear and mods will eventually be craftable when a new tier of equipment is released.

As a bonus, the lower-tier schematics you do manage to learn at the new super-duper halved reverse-engineering rate require purple crafting materials to make, which can only be obtained by... reverse-engineering high-end mods and armorings at a sub-100% drop rate.

So once again Biochem becomes the de facto best tradeskill in the game, followed only a little behind by the various augment crafters.

Wow, I'm kinda dumb, I didn't realize that even the account-wide unlocks are tradable/sellable on the AH. I bought unify colors for about 200,000 credits, which is a pittance really.

...then I noticed I can't get any of the money I had in my "escrow account" out, even just to fill myself back up to the 350k limit.

I suppose it's not too bad though; I mean, I can just play the game, do dailies, fuck around, and build up a bunch of credits. Then when some nice content patch comes out or event starts I can spend $15 for a month sub and have all the bells & whistles for a bit while permanently buying them for credits before it runs out.

"The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist." - George Bernard Shaw